Your Gift Guide to the Home of the Future

You don't need to completely rewire your home to make it future-friendly. This holiday season, you can buy plenty of plug-and-play devices that will automate and app-control your home, and most of them cost $300 or less. They're great gift ideas for anyone interested in hacking their house, revolutionizing their bathing habits, reinventing their kitchen, or controlling connected devices with the tap of an app.

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Quirky + GE Egg Minder: The Smart Egg Tray

Chances are there's someone on your gift list that thinks they have everything. We're willing to bet they don't have a tray that beams all manner of egg-related data to a mobile app. This joint project between Quirky and GE is a 14-spot tray loaded with sensors and a AA-battery-powered Wi-Fi chip. That means it's able to tell you which egg to fry up next (the oldest one) and how many eggs you've got left simply by checking your phone at the supermarket. LED indicator lamps light up next to the oldest egg in the tray, and a light sensor keeps battery life in check by only using power when it senses the fridge door is open. The Egg Minder ($70) displays an egg-centric dashboard via the Wink app for iOS and Android, which controls other devices such as the Pivot Power Genius power strip and the Nimbus personal dashboard.

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

Doorbot

If you're out buying groceries and somebody rings your doorbell, does it make a sound? Yes it does, but nobody could say for sure until the Doorbot ($200) existed. This Wi-Fi enabled monitor/doorbell initiates a video call from your front door to your smartphone whenever somebody rings your buzzer. Actually, it's more like half a video call: You can see them, but they can't see you. That makes it useful for talking to delivery men while you're away, answering the doorbell from your couch, or even screening your visitors. The mobile app mimics an intercom, letting you press a button to tell those kids to get off your lawn. The app side of the Doorbot equation is available for Android and iOS.

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

Revolv Home Automation Hub

If you know anyone who owns a few app-controlled home systems, here's a secret: Their smartphone is probably a mess thanks to all those disparate remote-control apps. Revolv's hub is a multi-protocol wireless receiver with a 65-foot range that also consolidates controls into a single streamlined app. In addition to cleaning up your app arsenal, it'll let you make presets that adjust several of your devices at once; one tap will adjust your lights, speakers, and thermostat to the perfect levels for watching a movie or getting work done. It also uses your phone's location services to automatically perform certain actions -- turn the lights on, flip on the air conditioning, or open the garage door -- when you're approaching your home. Revolv supports several devices in this gift guide, including Sonos speakers, Nest devices, Philips Hue bulbs, and Belkin's WeMo products. It only works with the iPhone and iPad right now, but an Android app is coming in early- to mid-2014 -- as is compatibility with more devices.

Image: Revolv Inc.

Kohler Moxie Showerhead and Wireless Speaker

The Moxie ($200) is a full-service showerhead with a detachable 1.5-Watt Bluetooth speaker right in the middle of its spray nozzles, making it the most ingenious way to listen to music in the shower we've seen yet. The speaker is obviously water-resistant, but it isn't hydro-powered. You'll need to charge its internal battery back up periodically, and Kohler rates its life at seven hours per charge. The speaker unit's magnetic mount makes it easy to pop in and out, so you can use it as a portable speaker outside the shower too. It'll work with any Bluetooth-capable device that's up to 32 feet away, so you can even have someone else DJ from another room. There are two versions of the showerhead -- one that pumps out 2.5 gallons per minute and another that pumps out 2 gallons -- as well as five different color options for the speaker.

Image: Kohler Co.

Belkin WeMo Switch and Motion

The term "plug-and-play" doesn't get any more literal than this. Without having to install anything or jumping through many set-up hoops, these Belkin modules ($50 to $80) automate certain parts of your home and give you app controls for "dumb" devices. The WeMo Switch is a Wi-Fi-enabled module that plugs right into a wall outlet, allowing you to turn anything plugged into it on or off using an iOS or Android device. You pair it up with the WeMo Motion sensor to take the automation one step further, such as having the lights turn on when you enter a room. The system lets you tackle more-complex actions through its support for If This Then That (IFTTT) recipes. By using IFTTT, you can create or use community-developed features that tap into other services, such as automatically sending a text message to your phone when someone enters your home.

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

Nest Protect and Nest Learning Thermostat

Nest's forward-thinking smoke/carbon-monoxide detector ($130) and thermostat ($250) have seemingly done the impossible: They've turned mundane (and frequently annoying) devices into exciting pieces of technology. You're probably very familiar with the Nest Learning Thermostat, which uses its wireless connection and sensors to automatically adjust to your schedule, offer app-based controls and analytics, and help you save money on bills. The newer Protect smoke detector replaces an ear-splitting alarm with spoken-word warnings, pings you when there's trouble, and doubles as a motion-sensing night light. When used in tandem, the smoke detector augments the thermostat's powers. If the Protect detects an increase in carbon-monoxide levels, it'll tell the thermostat to shut off your gas heater. The Protect's motion sensors also work together with those of the thermostat, helping it figure out an optimal heating routine based on your activities.

Image: Nest Labs

iRobot Looj 330

Falling off a ladder is no way to spend the holidays. The Looj ($300) is a little gutter-cleaning robot that will dramatically reduce the time you need to be at the top of a ladder grabbing at soggy leaves. It has a wireless remote control that lets you drive it manually or set it to auto-clean. All you have to do it put it in the gutter and remote-control it from there. Weighing less than 3 pounds, the Looj runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that powers its spinning polypropylene blades, bristles, and tank treads. The blades are strong enough to kick wet leaves and gutter detritus to the ground. It's a lot easier and safer to clean up a mess on terra firma than when balanced at the top of a ladder.

Image: iRobot Corporation

Philips Hue

You can use Philips' Hue system ($200 for a three-bulb starter pack) as "normal" light bulbs, but you'd be missing the point. These customizable, app-controlled LED lights screw in just like a normal bulb, but plug the included wireless bridge into your router, and you'll unlock some seriously cool features. By connecting to the bridge via a mobile app, you can dial in color schemes for each bulb, create lighting schedules, turn bulbs on or dim them from your phone, and select mood-lighting presets to help you work or relax. You can also tap portions of your own digital photos to select colors for each light. This is another product that leaves its feature set open to imagination, as it lets you add new rules and recipes with IFTTT. The Hue mobile app is available for both iOS and Android, and add-on bulbs cost $60 apiece.

Image: Philips

Dropcam Pro

The Dropcam Pro ($200) is an easy-to-install, Wi-Fi-connected, home-monitoring system at heart. But it can also be used for more entertaining things: A live-streaming Webcam, a way to bust the office lunch thief red-handed, and a way to converse with your pets at home while you're stuck in traffic. A built-in mic and speaker lets you talk to (and freak out) the people in front of the camera. The newest Dropcam shoots 1080p video at 30fps and has an ultra-wide-angle 130-degree field of view, while its night-vision mode and decent 8X digital zoom are handy for security purposes. Depending on the service plan you buy, you can save a week or a month's worth of footage on Dropcam's servers to review later. (Without the cloud-storage plan, you can only watch a real-time stream on your mobile device or a full browser.)

Image: Dropcam

Sonos Play:1 and Free Bridge

Sonos' newest, smallest, and most-affordable speaker is a great way to get acquainted with the company's offerings. The Play:1 Wi-Fi speaker ($200) sounds great, and Sonos is bundling it with with a free wireless bridge. The bridge is a $50 piece of hardware that's the centerpiece of the whole Sonos wireless experience, and it's especially important if you want to buy additional speakers and a subwoofer, or create a multi-room system. Setup for the Play:1 is simple, and Sonos' mesh-network approach gives you greater range than other wireless audio setups. Once it's up and running, it's a wireless stream-fest: Mobile apps for Android and iOS (and desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X) give you consolidated access to all your music -- from locally stored songs on iTunes, to your playlists on Spotify and Rdio, to Internet radio stations and podcasts -- through a single app.

Image: Sonos Inc.

Kohler VibrAcoustic Hydrotherapy Bath

Lighting a few candles and taking a bubble bath is for luddites. Kohler's VibrAcoustic Hydrotherapy bath takes relaxation to a new level by turning music into pulsing waves while you're bathing in it. Of course, you can also use it as a huge speaker when it's not filled with water. There are a total of six speakers embedded in it, and an auxiliary-in cable lets you play your own jams. The VibrAcoustic series of tubs comes standard with a touchscreen controller that gives you access to a few sound-and-body relaxation presets, and the higher-end units come equipped with a subaquatic light show.

Image: Kohler Co.

Joseph Joseph Index Advance Chopping Boards

There's nothing high-tech about these file-away cutting boards, but they're a great idea that's long overdue. Designed by Damien Evans, the four-board set comes in a case that doubles as a filing folder. Not only will it keep your kitchen space looking clean, but it will help you avoid cross-contamination while cutting and preparing your food. Each polypropylene, non-slip board has a little tab on it that denotes what you should use it for: A dedicated board for red meat, one for seafood, one for fruits and vegetables, and one for… a bowl of soup? How do you cut soup? Anyway, there's a deluxe version of the case that holds color-coded knives built for each chopping endeavor. That costs $80, but the boards-only version costs $65.